Over 40% of South Korean crypto investors view digital coins as long-term opportunity

Dimitar Bogdanov
June 8, 2018 2 min read

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Over 40% of cryptocurrency investors in South Korea consider digital currencies to be a longer-term investment, local news agency Yonhap has reported, citing a new survey, conducted by one of the country’s major crypto exchanges, Bithumb.

The survey, conducted among 2,507 people, showed that 42.8% of the respondents said they invested in digital currencies as part of their longer-term asset management plans. Meanwhile, some 27.1% said that they were focused on short-term profits, while 13.1% answered that they bet their money on digital currencies to get a taste of the financial market.

The lower percentage of short-term traders compared to the long-term investors perhaps comes as a bit of a surprise, given that the growing cryptocurrency speculation was one of the main reasons behind South Korea’s decision to impose tougher rules on the domestic digital currency sector. In the wake of last year’s crypto craze, the local regulators introduced new regulation designed to curb digital currency speculation and cryptocurrency-related money laundering. The new rules included a real-name account system and a ban on investment by minors and non-Korean citizens.

The regulators are also considering taxing digital currency trading through a capital gains tax or sales tax. As noted by Yonhap, Bithumb’s survey shows that 44.1% of respondents intend to reduce their investment once the tax is imposed on virtual currency trading, while 13.1% plan to pull their funds altogether. Interestingly, nearly 40% responded that they would keep their investment despite the tax, while 4.4% said they would increase their investment.

Bithumb is currently South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume. According to cryptocurrency tracker Coinmarketcap, the platform has processed just over $244 million in cryptocurrency trades over the past 24 hours, ranking seventh among global crypto exchanges. Bithumb’s closest domestic rival Upbit comes in at eighth place, with trading volume of $196.5 million.

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